Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 73398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
And hopefully, that meant for good.
I’d read and studied up on her disease, and they did say that once she felt stable, that sometimes, the cyclothymia would just resolve itself. Maybe it had just run its course since there was no known cure.
We didn’t know. The doctors didn’t know. Nobody knew…and we were counting that as a win. Though we did feel like we were holding our breath waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Here was to hoping it stayed gone.
Beatrice was doing her level best to make Cora feel anything but settled.
After finding out that Cora was pregnant with my child, Beatrice had lost her shit.
She was now a permanent resident of a penitentiary that specialized in the intense cases where the occupants also suffered from a mental disorder.
The penitentiary had helped her kick her drug habit, had found her a psychiatrist, and had told her that she wouldn’t be leaving for a very long time.
Cora, after coming out of her panic attack, had found out that she was pregnant, and had been in a state of shock right along with me for at least a month as we all tried to come to terms with what was now our lives.
But, overall, we were both quite happy—even if we were both scared shitless.
I’d asked her to marry me a month ago, and our wedding would take place the moment that Cora’s brother was able to come home from BUD/s training.
Luca hadn’t wanted to leave, but Cora had urged him to follow his dream.
And none of us had missed the way he’d looked at Frankie as he’d packed his shit and left.
Frankie hadn’t been the same since he’d left, either.
She was more withdrawn, and a whole lot more cautious.
She was now attending community college and was living back at my house while I’d moved in with Cora.
She was really shaken about the turn her mother had taken—and I couldn’t say that we all didn’t feel the same.
How we’d all missed Beatrice’s drug problem was beyond me.
In her need to get her hands on more money, she’d practically sold her daughter to a man to pay off her debts.
After everyone had met for a discussion and added everything they knew, Beatrice was questioned, and she confessed to everything.
Planting bomb materials in Cora’s car in the hopes of distracting me from what she was trying to accomplish—selling our daughter to cover her drug habit. Oh, and let’s not forget everything else she’d confessed in her crazy tirade in the hospital three months ago.
Needless to say, she wasn’t missed.
Cora’s fingers trailed down along my chest where I’d been impaled by the gear shifter.
“No panic attacks today,” she murmured.
“No,” I agreed. “You’re doing better.”
One day, Cora would be free of those panic attacks that’d been brought on when she killed that man, but today, and likely tomorrow, wouldn’t be that day.
We’d take our lives together one step at a time, and eventually we’d fight those demons together.
In the meantime, I was happy to be there for her just as she was thankful to be there for me.
I’d found something special in my neighbor, and I would thank every single star in the sky for being handed such a gift.
“Now, I think you better get off me. I’m about to throw up.”
I moved like lightning, and she did indeed throw up.
But, unlike Beatrice’s pregnancy, I was there for every step of Cora’s.
Every puke, hiccup, and nap included.
Epilogue
I was going to go outside, but I noticed that my neighbor was out.
-Text from Cora to Janie
Cora
“She what?!” Coke seethed. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”
He jerked forward and reached for the first shirt he saw, which happened to be mine.
“Coke,” I stilled him. “That’s my shirt.”
He dropped it and started to the closet.
“Coke,” I followed behind him. “You need to calm down.”
“Calm down?” He laughed humorlessly. “Yeah, fuckin’ right. The man that I trusted with my daughter slept with her. My baby. I’ll kill him.”
I would’ve laughed. Really, I would have. But I couldn’t. Not with him this upset.
Coke shot me a disgusted look. “Don’t act like you didn’t have a problem with that in the beginning.”
He was right. I had.
“I also admit when I’m wrong,” I told him carefully. “Coke.” I put my hand on his shoulder. “Seriously, take a step back and think about this before you go and do anything half-cocked.”
“Give me one fuckin’ reason that I can’t go knock his teeth in right this fucking second,” he growled.
“I’ll give you two,” I countered.
He raised his eyebrows, waiting for me to enlighten him.
“One, you don’t know where he is.”
Coke frowned.
He knew I was right.
“And two?” he snarled, still extremely pissed.
“Two, he didn’t mean to pick up and leave. He had no choice. He’s a SEAL now. He has no choice but to leave when he’s called out.”